By ramping up their promotional efforts for the Sept. 19 Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view fight, some might say that HBO and Golden Boy Promotions are going old school. The fight will be shown at 170 movie theaters across the country and available in over 350,000 hotel rooms. Couple that with what seems like an aggressive usage of the Internet, mobile phones and social networking tools to promote the fight, and it's safe to say that they are doing everything in their power to make this event available to as many people as possible.That's good news for boxing fans. Even better news is that they are finally using a mega-fight to spotlight some fresh, new talent to the masses. So while all those promotional efforts might be effective for one particular fight, the decision to stack this event with a solid undercard may prove to be the smartest decision HBO and Golden Boy ends up making.
At a sports business forum in New York City on Wednesday, Mark Taffet, the senior vice president of HBO pay-per-view, told FanHouse that it was a conscious decision by all parties involved to announce the undercard early, while making it a very attractive one.
"When Floyd Mayweather came back, he said he wanted to provide the biggest, best night possible for consumers. And Floyd really implored us to work together with Golden Boy to prove the top to bottom, soup to nuts telecast that would be exciting and rewarding for boxing fans," Taffet said. "So Golden Boy went to work, and with Chris John vs. Rocky Juarez and Michael Katsidis vs. Vincente Escobedo, they really put together an undercard that's as good as any and better than most in the history of pay-per-view."
According to HBO, since their PPV outlet, HBO PPV, launched in April 1991 with the George Foreman vs. Evander Holyfield fight, they have produced and distributed over 150 pay-per-view events, generating 44 million PPV buys and $2.1 billion in revenue. Amazingly, despite talk that boxing is experiencing a dry spell, 2006-2008 were three of the four biggest years in HBO PPV history with 12.5 million PPV buys and $634 million in revenue generated in that period.
However, some might say that HBO and Golden Boy squandered multiple opportunities to build new stars when millions of people tuned in to watch the likes of Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquaio, and Ricky Hatton do battle over the last three years because all of those events featured weak undercards.
The UFC, boxing's biggest competitor in the pay-per-view market, has been able to create a great amount of new, young stars by featuring at least five or six fights on all their major pay-per-views.
Fans will always pay to watch a great main event, but while they're there, might as well give them a preview of the champions of tomorrow, right?
Taffet didn't mention the UFC's model specifically, but it's clear that big brother boxing has noticed their success when devoting time and effort into building a solid undercard.
"We think particularly for the young fans and the next generation of boxing fans that we need to cultivate, it's important to provide a full night of entertainment, and we are very pleased that the promoters are taking it seriously and are accepting it, and are committed to providing for the fans the best night of boxing, not just the best main event possible."
So wherever you plan on watching the Mayweather vs. Marquez fight, be sure to get there early because you won't want to miss Juarez vs. John II or the exciting Katsidis and Escobedo do battle for the interim WBO lightweight title. And while you're doing that, sit back and think how great it would be if you could see three exciting fights featuring big stars every time you purchase an HBO pay-per-view.
